Volunteer diaries: An average day at HOOP!

In this week’s blog Misha Zala from the UK gives us an inside look at an average school day for HOOPsters staying at the volunteer hostel.

Like most HOOPsters, I’m staying at Home Sweet Home, a relaxed hostel in the centre of Arequipa. A ‘typical’ day at Home Sweet Home goes like this:

Breakfast is on the roof terrace from 7.30am to 9.30am… guess what time most of us aim for! It’s great here: pancakes, fresh juice and a fried or scrambled egg… probably the best breakfast we’ve had in a Peruvian hostel! Then we fight over the showers before getting ready for the day.

Interns head to the office to start work at 10am. Teachers (like me!), can hang out together at the hostel and plan our lessons – or we head to the office (a 10 minute walk) to print things – but mainly just to distract everyone at HOOP HQ with questions!

On the way, we stop for a chat with one of my favourite people in Arequipa, or maybe the world...  the ‘Pare Man’ on Calle Santa Catalina. He’s part of the tourist police and he stops the cars so we can cross. The journey isn’t the same without a high five or quick song from this guy!

Next, it’s time to grab lunch at a local restaurant or nip back to the hostel. Here, restaurants offer a really good value set menu for lunch! Honourable mentions to the fabled ‘Six Fifty Place’ on Puente Bolognesi (loved by our volunteer Philipp for the lomo saltado and well... it only costs 6 soles 50). The great thing about staying here for a while is that we get to discover all the best secret food places.

After lunch, it’s time to gather the troops to catch the combi bus to school. Always an interesting experience - the first rule of the combi is that... there are no rules! It’s got as many people as they can squeeze on.

We get to school around 2.30pm and set everything up. At 3.15pm, we greet the children, who play and do warm up exercises together. Class begins at 3.30pm where we engage the children in English lessons. Our aim is to show our kids how fun learning can be, through play, games and crafts. The hour usually flies by!

Then the older kids stay back at the school to get help understanding their homework from their morning school. For everyone else, it’s Cancha time at a local playground where we play games and sports. At 5.45, we pack up, marvel at the gorgeous sunset and get back on the combi. We always hope it’s the route that stops near the ‘Churro lady’ on Puente Grau, so we can pick up our favourite snack for one sole!

For dinner, there are tons of great choices like ‘The Chifa Place’ or ‘El Misti grill’ which fellow HOOPster Tom thinks is the best restaurant in Arequipa. But if we’re cooking at Home Sweet Home, that’s when the best comedy moments occur. There’s a kitchen, but with so many volunteers it can get chaotic. I’ve got a Facebook photo-series called ‘Cooking with HOOP’ (Rule no. 1: always use a bread knife to chop onions). Sometimes local volunteer Evaldo likes to cook for us and we love trying local specialities!

In the evening, we might watch a movie in the living room, hang out on the roof or go out for a drink together. The hostel is always happy to let us have guests over if we want a little fiesta on the roof terrace. By the end of the day, everyone is pretty exhausted and heads to bed. For me and my roommate, Amina, that usually involves playing silly games or telling late night stories!

I’m really happy living at Home Sweet Home, and definitely recommend it to future volunteers!

Curious to find out more? Check out our 'Day in the Life of a Volunteer' video.

24 signs you lived in Arequipa...

There are countless reasons the White City is a charming, fascinating and downright quirky place to live. So we compiled a list of 24 of our favourite tell-tale signs you've lived in Arequipa.

1. The rubbish trucks brighten up your day by playing ‘Under the Sea’ (or other amazing songs!). When you go back home, rubbish collection day loses all its magic.

The rubbish trucks announce their arrival with all kinds of interesting music

2. You want to start wearing a badge saying ‘I’m not a tourist, I live here!’ in Plaza de Armas when everyone tries to sell you Colca Canyon tours, herd you into their restaurant, or sell you sunglasses.

Pare Man with HOOPster, Amina

3. You’re friends with ‘Pare Man’ (the happiest man in Arequipa - and a local celebrity!), who helps tourists cross the street outside Santa Catalina Monastery. He may have even given you a high five or sung for you. You probably have a photo with him on your phone.

4. Inka Cola and chicha morada become your favourite (or least favourite) drinks, and you’re always amazed at how many uses there are for corn.

5. You’ve walked down a street clearly owned by stray dogs and either wanted to adopt them or feared for your life!

6. Reality TV takes on a whole new meaning with ‘Esto es Guerra’ (This is War), and you had to redefine your idea of bad acting after seeing a Peruvian tele novella.

7. The view of the volcanos makes you proud, and you’ve stared hypnotically at El Misti during the amazing sunset.

8. You’ve realised that however good a driver you are, you need special skills to navigate the streets of Arequipa without causing an accident.

9. People being an hour late seems perfectly normal because of ‘Peruvian time’.

10. Finding a seat on the combi has become an Olympic sport. Getting the front seat next to the driver means you’ve won. Having to spoon a stranger for an hour-long journey means you’ve lost.

Crowded combis

11. You’ve been tempted to take pictures with the ladies with lambs in traditional clothes in Plaza de Armas. But then you realise that would be a ‘tourist’ thing to do, so you walk by wondering how your photo would have looked.

12. You've heard bus conductors shouting "Villa Fontana, Villa Paraiso, metro, metro, baja, vamos" so much that you can still hear it in your head right now.

13. You’ve wondered why all shops selling the same things are right next to each other. Instead of using real street names, you talk about ‘dentist street’, ‘optician street’, ‘electronics street’ and even ‘funeral street’.

14. When you get to your home country, you’re disappointed by the avocados and tomatoes and you’re sad that fresh juice doesn’t taste as good.

15. You have said (many times) "I'm not going to Circus tonight". Five hours later, you were dancing wildly in Circus nightclub.

16. You think you’ve tanned but you’re actually just covered in dust.

17. You have newfound confidence in your salsa skills and you lost your inhibitions about hitting the dancefloor. You also forgot what a dance tune sounds like without the Latino mix.

18. You wake up every day happily knowing it will be sunny (apart from in the rainy season!) but secretly miss having actual seasons.

19. You keep crossing the road so you can walk in the shade and you never leave the house without your sunglasses.

20. You get lomo saltado cravings at lunchtime and salchipapa cravings after a night out (and ceviche cravings at least once a week).

Salchipapas - everyone's favourite post-nightclub snack.

21. Your bartering skills are second to none, so you get annoyed when a taxi driver tries to charge you 7 soles for what you know full well is a 5 soles journey.

22. You carry around rubbish for about 20 minutes looking for a bin, and wonder how the city is so clean.

23. You get reverse culture shock from how expensive everything is at home compared to Peru.

24. You recommend Arequipa to everyone as a beautiful and amazing city to visit and get annoyed if people don’t include it on their itinerary because it’s so awesome!

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